1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a telephone message confirming apparatus, and more particularly to a recorded telephone message/number identifying method and apparatus using a television set for displaying in sequential time order on the TV screen phone messages recorded during a recipient's absence, thereby enabling a visual confirmation of the recorded messages.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In an answering machine applied to a conventional telephone, when a phone call is received during a recipient's absence, a guide or greeting message recorded previously by the recipient is initially transmitted to the calling party and then a message from the calling party is recorded.
As shown in FIG. 1, a conventional signal processor in a television set includes: a tuner 1 for tuning a high frequency signal output from an antenna ANT; an infrared receiver 11 for receiving a signal from a remote controller 10; a microcomputer 9 for controlling the television set according to data received via the remote controller 10 or input via a key matrix 12; an intermediate frequency detector 2 for separating an intermediate frequency signal output from the tuner 1 into a voice signal and a picture signal; a voice signal amplifier 3 and a voice signal output circuit 4 for each amplifying the voice signal from the intermediate frequency detector 2 and outputting the resultant signal; a speaker 5 for outputting as sound the voice signal from the voice signal output circuit 4; a picture signal processor 6 for selecting and processing a TV image signal and red, green and blue color signals from an on-screen display circuit; a picture signal output circuit 7 for outputting the picture data processed in the image signal processor 6; and a picture tube 8 for displaying on the TV screen the picture signal outputted from the picture signal output circuit 7.
According to the thusly composed conventional signal processing apparatus in a TV set, the key input signal from the key matrix 12 is applied to the microcomputer 9 which in turn decodes a corresponding key signal to thereby carry out a desired function. At this time, if the input key signal is related to a channel, channel data is output to the tuner 1 to thereby select a corresponding frequency and the selected intermediate frequency signal IF is applied to the intermediate frequency detector 2.
Meanwhile, the intermediate frequency detector 2 separates a voice signal and a picture signal from each other thus to be applied to the voice signal amplifier 3 and the image signal processor 6, respectively, whereby the corresponding channel signal is reproduced into a picture and sound.
At this time, the microcomputer 9 outputs the R,G,B color signals to the picture signal processor 6 thus to carry out an on-screen display (OSD), and the picture signal processor 6 combines a chroma signal of the TV set with the R,G,B color signals of the OSD and the resultant image signal is output to the picture tube 8, whereby the OSD and the picture signal are simultaneously displayed on the TV screen. Here, such functions can be controlled using the remote controller 10 or the key matrix 12.
However, the TV set according to the prior art does not have a automatic answering function for telephone calls. Besides, in presently available telephone answering machines, messages recorded on the answering machine cannot be visually identified and must be sequentially reproduced one at a time.
Further, present telephone answering machines often lack a clock function so that it has been difficult to know when the messages were recorded.